THE COMPLETE ANGLER 155 



and also by some ducks, which will lay eggs nine of the 

 twelve months ; and yet there be other ducks that lay 

 not longer than about one month. And it is the rather to 

 be believed, because you shall scarce or never take a male 

 carp without a melt, and a female without a roe or spawn, 

 and for the most part very much, and especially all the 

 summer season. ' And it is observed that they breed more 

 naturally in ponds than in running waters, if they breed 

 there at all ; and that those that live in rivers are taken 

 by men of the best palates to be much the better 

 meat. 



And it is observed, that in some ponds carps will not 

 breed, especially in cold ponds ; but where they will 

 breed they breed innumerably : Aristotle and Pliny say 

 six times in a year, if there be no pikes or perch to devour 

 their spawn, when it is cast upon grass, or flags, or weeds, 

 where it lies ten or twelve days before it be enlivened. 



The carp, if he have water room and good feed, will 

 grow to a very great bigness and length ; I have heard, 

 to be much above a yard long.* It is said by Jovius, 

 who hath writ of fishes, that in the Lake Lurian in Italy, 

 carps have thriven to be more than fifty pounds weight : 

 which is the more probable, for as the bear is conceived 

 and born suddenly, and being born is but short-lived, 

 so, on the contrary, the elephant is said to be two years 

 in his dam's belly, some think he is ten years in it, and 

 being born, grows in bigness twenty years ; and it is 

 observed too that he lives to the age of a hundred years. 

 And it is also observed, that the crocodile is very long- 

 lived, and more than that, that all that long life he thrives 

 in bigness ; and so I think some carps do, especially 

 in some places ; though I never saw one above twenty- 

 three inches, which was a great and a goodly fish ; but 



* The widow of the late Mr. David Garrick, of Drury Lane 

 Theatre, once told me, that in her native country, Germany, she 

 had seen the head of a carp served up at table, big enough to fill a 

 large dish. H. 



